the tricky part is noticing the bad and the good together. i mean that's the tricky part, you know. i made a direct assault against the manner of speech in order to puncture the effect that such a statement is intended to make. i mentioned that i know the intention because i can speak in the same way.

i don't think it's wrong to see from Thurman's perspective. the way people defend Thurman by attacking QT is perhaps this thing i'm more aware of since it's QT. have these been easy times my friends? like i said i don't think it's wrong to see from Thurman's perspective.

“He didn’t rape a 13-year-old. It was statutory rape...he had sex with a minor. That’s not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down—it’s like one of the most violent crimes in the world. You can’t throw the word rape around. It’s like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It doesn’t apply to everything people use it for.”

Reminded by Robin Quivers that Polanski’s victim—who had been plied with quaaludes and alcohol before her assault—did not want to have sex with Polanski, Tarantino became riled up.

Tarantino: No, that was not the case AT ALL. She wanted to have it and dated the guy and—

Quivers: She was 13!

Tarantino: And by the way, we’re talking about America’s morals, not talking about the morals in Europe and everything.

Stern: Wait a minute. If you have sex with a 13-year-old girl and you’re a grown man, you know that that’s wrong.

Thurman's instagram post offered a kinder perspective, but there isn't going to be a kinder perspective ending to this. and i really don't think there has to be or should be. i still won't--as i haven't, for anyone--excite myself by speaking against him with others. in the air of deciding what kind of person people are, i'll say i'm not that kind of person. but really i should learn to never support the accused. really i should learn to listen. we're all learning to listen.

To emphasize that she isn't a very good driver is kind of a shitty thing to do too, but at least he seems very regretful and realize that it was very wrong, as Thurman already said in her article. Still, you fucked up.

And that Polanski thing is just... wow. Raping kids is not okay in Europe, Quentin. I promise you.

I like these Tarantino interviews. He's being judged by everybody now mainly because when he speaks, he gives answers that at least seem honest. Had he taken the safe (yet completely hypocritical) route of saying he'd never even heard of anything about Weinstein, like so many other people have said, he would have been left alone. When he spoke about it, he said he knew enough to have done something about it, just like about 90% of all Hollywood, but hey, he didn't lie about it, so he must be taken to task, right?

About the Uma Thurman situation, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it was a terrible decision to have her drive that car when she felt insecure, but again, he didn't hide from it, and he gave her the footage, even if 15 years later.

About the Polanski situation, that's just another example of how we are as a society right now. Times change and people change. Tarantino said that in 2003, and a lot of people heard that. Nothing happened to him because maybe society wasn't that aware of these things then as it is now. And if today everybody cringes when listening to such a thing, they certainly didn't then, so maybe the same thing happened with Tarantino, who probably doesn't stand behind his own words from almost 15 years ago? Society changes because people change, and it doesn't mean molesting kids was acceptable then, certainly not in Europe (that was the weirdest thing about that speech, by the way), but the way we speak about it maybe isn't the same. We should all be aware of such situations and call them out because nobody is above the law, but I don't think it makes any sense to judge people left and right - he may have said unfortunate things, but he certainly didn't rape anyone (as far as we know) and he's shown that he can be introspective and reflect and learn and is open to learn from his own mistakes. If he doesn't though, then he should definitely be called out.

About the Polanski situation, that's just another example of how we are as a society right now. Times change and people change. Tarantino said that in 2003, and a lot of people heard that.

Yeah no. 2003 ≠ 1953. Anyone trying to justify Polanski or blame a 13 year old in 2003 or hell, any year, is a fucking dirtbag.

The only thing that's really changed is internet culture. Everyone is online all the time now. Such was not the case in 2003, which is why the Stern interview didn't go as viral or trigger as much of a reaction as it's doing now.

Has he ever expressed remorse over those comments? Will he now, given the story just broke Monday and he's already in stage 5 PR damage control? I haven't seen anything yet, nor do I expect it to do much good if he does offer an apology.

People retroactively bashing one's work after a scandal breaks is a different issue.

The thing with Polanski is weirder than Allen, it's as if, in the States or Europe (especially France), most artists avoid the facts only because they like his work—even people who are sensible about, well, raping 13 years old. What's shitty about this interview resurfacing in the big Bashing Tarantino Days is that it seems like a weird "added" reason to validate the hate. We're talking about Polanski, he's been working for years with big stars, received awards, etc. If you want to go against people defending him, the list is bigger than Tarantino. And it's in no way a shocking revelation hidden in the shadows.

people need to relax. this outrage culture is exhausting and it's increasingly serving no real purpose at all.uma thurman already said tarantino is not to blame. he already explained everything in a reasonable way. I like that he doesn't double down on absurd shit like: "oh, he choked her, oh he spit on her" like that means anything at all. films are serious endeavours which take time and effort from everyone. pros usually take that in account first before making any choices. directors AND actors.

that said, he does sounds like he knows fuck about the Polanski case. however, my sensibilities are more in tune with Samantha Geimer's (you know, the ACTUAL victim of this awful thing) than with all these self righteous nonsense:

on TARANTINO: "I'm not upset, but I would probably feel better if he realizes now that he was wrong, after 15 years, after hearing the facts," she said. "Nobody has to be pissed off on my behalf. I'm okay."

on POLANSKI: "I have forgiven him and moved on," she told The News in 2015. "He pled guilty, served his time, and I'm not quite sure what anyone expects beyond that. That's satisfactory to me. It should be to everyone."

AND

"It's not a big deal to me what people think. It doesn't make a difference in my life. I know what happened. I do not need other people weighing in on what it's like getting raped at 13,"...

however, my sensibilities are more in tune with Samantha Geimer's (you know, the ACTUAL victim of this awful thing) than with all these self righteous nonsense:

on TARANTINO: "I'm not upset, but I would probably feel better if he realizes now that he was wrong, after 15 years, after hearing the facts," she said. "Nobody has to be pissed off on my behalf. I'm okay."

on POLANSKI: "I have forgiven him and moved on," she told The News in 2015. "He pled guilty, served his time, and I'm not quite sure what anyone expects beyond that. That's satisfactory to me. It should be to everyone."

From what I can tell, Polanski has served less than a year in jail in total. He still hasn't been sentenced in that case. He fled the country because he'd heard the judge was going to disregard the plea bargain and sentence him to 50 years. Which is not great, but I don't think anyone could reasonably argue that 1 year is enough for what he did.

Citing Samantha Geimer's opinions on the case has absolutely no legal value. The state brought the case against Roman Polanski. There are many reasons we don't leave it to the victims to prosecute crimes like this.

I don't feel like it's a product of outrage culture to feel that someone raping a kid is bad, and another person going out of his way to try and rationalize someone's raping of a kid is also bad. I don't feel like it's an overreaction to publicly shame a film director for willfully endangering an actor. When people do objectively bad things, there have to be societal consequences, whether they be legal, social, or professional, or else we're explicitly sanctioning those bad things. Attempts to circumvent those consequences, e.g., fleeing prosecution or having incriminating footage hidden for 15 years, should be met with outrage. I don't care if it's exhausting, it's fucking necessary.

About the Polanski situation, that's just another example of how we are as a society right now. Times change and people change. Tarantino said that in 2003, and a lot of people heard that.

Yeah no. 2003 ≠ 1953. Anyone trying to justify Polanski or blame a 13 year old in 2003 or hell, any year, is a fucking dirtbag.

The only thing that's really changed is internet culture. Everyone is online all the time now. Such was not the case in 2003, which is why the Stern interview didn't go as viral or trigger as much of a reaction as it's doing now.

Has he ever expressed remorse over those comments? Will he now, given the story just broke Monday and he's already in stage 5 PR damage control? I haven't seen anything yet, nor do I expect it to do much good if he does offer an apology.

People retroactively bashing one's work after a scandal breaks is a different issue.

I specifically wrote that raping kids (or anyone for that matter) was as unacceptable then as it is now. What I meant to say was that maybe looking at it in 2003, people thought about those things differently. As Samantha Geimer said, "I'm not upset, but I would probably feel better if he realizes now that he was wrong, after 15 years, after hearing the facts". Of course, if someone were to ask him that question again and he'd stick to his first answer, then that would be problematic. But again, Tarantino did not rape any 13 year old girls as far as we know and people are acting like he did.

The point I think I'm trying to get to is that this outrage culture is just garbage because people are more interested in screaming as loud as they can than actually trying to enlighten others. We have every right to call out Polanski for raping a kid, but not to call out Tarantino on his comments 15 years ago as if they were a crime. They are a problem, but they are not a crime. Maybe, hopefully, he learned something during this time because, well, people change.